Josh H

Some more news to further end any discussion of Nintendo leaving the hardware business.

from cube.ign.com:

GameCube Successor in Development

Nintendo collaborates with NEC.

December 13, 2002 - Bloomberg is reporting that Nintendo is planning to collaborate with electronics giant NEC on the creation of the GameCube's next-generation hardware successor. The home console, which sources have indicated could debut in 2005 against Sony's PlayStation 3, is still without an official title or codename.
NEC previously supplied the graphics chip for Sega's Dreamcast and Nintendo's GameCube, and has recently invested 40 billion yen into the creation of a new production factory in Kumamoto, Japan.

NEC is working on developing a system LSI that would serve as the core of the new game console.

The continued Nintendo alliance with NEC comes in response to Sony and Toshiba's stronghold on the videogame market, according to Bloomberg.

We will have more on this news soon. Stay tuned.

Groucho

Wouldn't that be interesting to have three consoles launch simulataneously? I can just imagine the petty bickering that'll go in this forum.

Josh H

No kidding.

I was shocked by that date, I didn't think Nintendo would break from the 5 years between consoles pattern. Then again they do have a history of hardware delays, so I'd still be surprised if this comes out before summer/fall 2006.

zig

I hope they do launch very near (less than 6 months) the PS3 launch, whenever that ends up happening.

jeffdsmith

Perhaps Nintendo is "bitting the bullet" and realizes they must launch about the same time in order to compete at the level developers want them too.

focker

Didn't ATI make the Gamecube graphics chip?

The Bus

focker: Not technically... I thought the chip (or part of a chip or a component thereof) was made by ArtX, which then was bought out by ATI.

zig

ArtX(now part of ATi) designed it, NEC probably actually makes it.